“Thanks,” I said feeling elated that we were actually free from what I thought was going to be a tortured life of imprisonment. “I’m so happy,” I looked at him with glistening eyes, grateful for the well lit, full moon overhead. “We’re free!”
He smiled lovingly at me. “You did it.”
“We better hurry,” I said coughing from the dust. My throat was a little sore from my screams and cries, but other than that I felt great. “The community leaders will probably come to inspect the destruction shortly. Surely, they must have heard the loud crashing sounds of the dungeon collapsing.”
“I’ll carry you,” he suggested.
I laughed. “I’m just fine.” I continued laughing.
He shrugged and shook his head. “You’re a tough one. But, first, let me dress us in something more durable than these flimsy robes.”
“Oh, right.” I chuckled. “Yes, please do.” I hadn’t realized how silly we looked standing outside in our cell robes.
He whispered a spell in Latin. My robe fell to the ground. When I looked down at my body to see how he dressed me, I burst out laughing. I was wearing black lace lingerie with thigh high stalkings, spiked heels, and long black gloves like in the painting he created of me. “Very funny.”
He smiled facetiously at me. “I am the devil—aren’t I?” With that comment, he said another spell and we were both dressed in camouflaged hiking attire.
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “That’s better.” I was still grinning.
Now dressed adequately for an adventure, we climbed out of the rubble and into the woods.
“This way.” He took my hand and we ran through the trees and then along the edge of a stream. The full moon lit the leaves overhead and gave light to our footings. The music played in my mind and I longed to reach the lake.
But, as we ran, we heard rustling in the trees, voices, and advancing footsteps. It sounded like a crowd of community members were headed toward the collapsed dungeon and headed toward us!
Shaul grabbed me and covered my mouth with his hand. He scooped me up off the ground in one arm. “Don’t speak.” He whispered. And then, with me pressed up against him, my body yearning for him out of control, he scampered up with his free hand and feet into the dense leaves of a very tall tree like a lizard in fast motion.
We perched in silent agitation in the tree as the crowd of familiar faces passed below. My pulse raced from mixed emotions.
I saw Mazen Tratzel at the front carrying a torch of fire blazing in the night. It looked like he was starting to lose his hair. His body sagged. Some of the others were also holding lit torches. It appeared as if the entire community was involved.
When Jezebel Bradeere passed with her tall sleek body along with chatty Lola and Tomaru, hatred rose up in me. I wanted to pounce on Jezebel and cut her throat. Shaul held me by the shoulder which only heightened my passions.
I saw the baker and the cook. Even their wives and children were with them. There were many new members in the community that I didn’t recognize. I was surprised how much the population had increased.
Then there was my mother. My heart sank. It looked like she had aged since I had last seen her. Her eyes were puffy and tired. Her long blonde hair was cut to her shoulders and looked drab and unkempt. She was with a tall pot bellied man who held her arm as they walked. I wondered if she had a boyfriend now.
I was relieved that no one had noticed us. But, just at that thought, one edgy boy with messed up short brown hair and a glare in his dark eyes trailed off at the end of the crowd. I sensed he was looking for trouble. He glanced up into the tree.
“There’re people up there. Hey everybody,” the boy yelled out, jumping and pointing at us. “There’re people in the tree.”
Before anyone had a chance to take action, Shaul ran down the trunk with me in his arm. He grabbed the boy and snapped his neck in one clean movement. Without a fight, he fell lifeless to the ground.
I winced. I couldn’t believe a boy had just died only an inch from my face. Before anyone could catch us, Shaul ran full speed away from the community members. He was so fast that the trees whizzed by us in blurs. I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach.
After some time, he slowed down. I recognized the area realizing we were right next to the community’s log cabins.
“There’s a cave,” he said. “We’ll hide in there and after the crowd returns, we’ll go into your mother’s cabin and ask her to come away with us.”
The inside of the cave was dark and musty. I was afraid of what kinds of insects or creatures could be hiding within. But, even with that, I was happy just to be with Shaul. The music groaned in euphoric escalation in my mind. I could hardly control myself from running straight for the lake.
I tried to change my thoughts to distract myself from my desires. “Did you see how my mother looked?” I asked, unable to see the expression on his face in the darkness.
“She looked depressed.” He put his hand on my back comfortingly which sent another rush through me. “She was probably worried that you were hurt in the earthquake.”
“Oh, you’re right. She probably was.” I hadn’t thought about how the earthquake could have affected the community members. “Do you think the people could have felt it from their cabins?”
“I’m sure it wasn’t as strong, but I’m also sure they felt the movement and heard the collapsing of the dungeon. That’s why they’re headed there right now.”
“I wonder if Lucindean died in the collapse.”
“If she survived, she’ll tell the community that we are serpents.”
My eyes widened. “That’s right. She accused us of being serpents just before I started screaming.”
“Your mother will tell them that you are not a serpent, but she will not be able to tell them the same about me.”
“It doesn’t matter what they know about you, but it does matter what my mother knows. She will hate you if she thinks you are a serpent person.”
“I know,” Shaul said solemnly.
Later that night, when the people returned, we waited until silence struck, and then we made our move.
Shaul picked the lock to my mother’s front door and we entered her cabin. It was pitch black inside.
I felt around for the matches next to the lantern. They were there just as they always had been. I lit the lantern and a soft yellow light filled the living room. “Mom,” I whispered.
At once she ran out of the kitchen wide eyed and maniacal toward Shaul with an ax in her hand. She must have been waiting for us to arrive. With all her force, she swung the edge of the blade at his neck, but he ducked with his fast reflexes. She tried again.
He was too quick. At once, he grabbed the weapon out of her hands.
Stumbling forward, she regained her balance and then backed away. “Leave my daughter alone, you evil devil.” The look on her face was crazed as she backed against the wall.
“Mom, he’s Ok. He won’t hurt us.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing, Cordellia.” Tears streamed down my mother’s face. “Tell him to leave,” she demanded.
“I can’t leave him. We want you to come away with us.” I looked at Shaul and he was nodding.
“Look what this community did to your daughter,” Shaul said to my mother. “They tortured her and locked her away in a dungeon. We don’t want you to live in a corrupt place like this and Cordellia cannot stay here now. They will put her back in prison or worse they may even kill her as punishment for escaping.”
“You have to come with us, Mom.” I was crying and so was she. “There’s no future for me here and I cannot be without you.”
My mother’s face turned cold. “I missed you, Cordellia, but I cannot allow you to be with a serpent. The guard woman who he grossly disfigured told us how you were kissing Shaul and of his black magic. Make him leave. We’ll find our own way.”
“We have to go now.” Shaul motioned to me. “Someone’s coming.”
I saw a man walking toward my mother’s cabin with a lit torch in his hand.
My mother started screaming, “They’re here. They’re here. Come and get them.”
Though I shouldn’t have been, I was shocked that my mother would betray me like that. “Please,” I cried. “Please don’t do that.”
Her voice grew even louder. “Shaul and Cordellia are in here. Take them away.”
The man outside started running and yelling to the community, “We have them in Patravia’s cabin.”
Shaul lifted me into his arm again and ran out the door. He knocked the tall pot bellied man over, but did not kill him. “I think he’s your mom’s boyfriend,” he whispered to me as he ran in the direction of the lake with me in his arm.
26
Shaul carried me in his arms across the boundary line. The sky was turning from pitch black to a dull, dreamy gray as the sun showed its first signs of rising.
“You can set me down now,” I said uneasily as I thought about my mother’s betrayal. “I can make my way down the cliff on my own.”
With hesitation, Shaul set me down. “They’re probably looking for us already. We have to hurry.” He wiped a tear from my cheek with his finger. “We’ll work this out somehow.”
“I don’t think so,” I whispered as I looked up at the sky. “It’s great to be outside.” I smiled, feeling the dance of the lake music to my very core.
His silver eyes were intense as he looked at me.
Deer grazing in the field beyond the lake raised their heads only now aware of our presence. A surprising feeling washed over me. I felt like I was home as we stood above the water rippling in the early morning light.
Now that we had arrived together, side by side the music calmed and became more romantic and melodious in my mind. I felt as if I had been here before. I’m not talking about the time that I chased after Shaul when he crossed the boundary line. Before that. Something about this place seemed very familiar like I had lived here in the past. Maybe in another life, I reasoned. I just didn’t know. Whatever it was, I was home and I never wanted to leave.
“It’s so beautiful here,” I said looking at the landscape.
“It is.” He had a serene look on his face as he gazed at the water.
“I can’t wait to try out my new mermaid tail in the lake. There’s a whole lot more room to swim around here compared to that bathtub in my cell.”
“I’m going to take you on the swim of your life.” His voice was teasing. “But, we better hurry to the lake before the community finds us here.”
Just thinking about being caught and put back into prison upset me. If they found us, they surely wouldn’t let Shaul and I stay together. They would either kill us or imprison us again for life. Either way, they would separate us. And now I knew I couldn’t live without Shaul. He was me and I was him. We were one. I would rather die than be alone without him.
Movement and breaking twigs sounded in the trees at a distance behind us. There were the sounds of hushed voice. I looked back and saw lit torches in the early morning light moving through the trees in our direction.
“You ready?” Shaul took my hand.
I nodded.
“Command your wings.”
My eyes widened in shock with his expectations. I wasn’t about to jump off this steep cliff with my inept control over the giant flower tucked inside my hump.
Just then a gust of wind blew over us. It was happening so fast. There was the loud sound of an engine over our heads. I looked up and saw that an air scout had moved in right above us. Only the serpent people flew air scouts!
My hair started to blow in all sorts of directions. At once, a long silver pole with a spiked tip extending from the vehicle shot into the ground. A black cobra-like serpent man slid in super speed down the pole.
Shaul barely had time to speak. “Aver!”
I froze. Aver was Shaul’s evil brother. Shaul grabbed me as huge black feathered wings extended from his back. Aver threw Shaul into the air. We spiraled up and then Aver slammed us to the ground. My mind spun. The next thing I know Aver’s black scaly body turned inside out and surrounded me like a cocoon. I couldn’t breathe. I was covered in black cold scales. He pulled his body off of me, regained form and started ripping my clothes off.
I heard Shaul chanting in Latin. Suddenly, I was back in Shaul’s arms. His brother was slithering on his belly without appendages.
“Command your wings,” Shaul said.
Without thinking, I cried out in a high pitched trill, “Open wings!” The flower sprang out of my back.
“Do you trust me?” Shaul asked, his eyes lit with determination.
“Yes.” I smiled at him softly.
And with another spell, we shot into the air, hand in hand, off the cliff. Shaul’s wings extended backwards and we somersaulted toward the water below.
“Dive,” he yelled out to me.
“Close wings,” I commanded myself as I raised my hands over my head, straightened my body, and dove toward the beckoning water with Shaul. The music was blaring. My wings folded back into my hump and we broke the surface at high speed.
The water rushed around us, embracing us like pure passion. We moved deeper and deeper now into the golden abyss. There was a light ahead and we entered it hand in hand, body to body, as one, beckoned by fate.
Réussie Miliardario
Hi, there. I hope you liked Girl Possessed. If so, Girl Enchanted, the next book in The Girl Trilogy. Is available now!
Here’s a little about me. I was a former film, television, and theater actor and a high school English teacher. I grew up in balmy California which inspired the settings for many of my stories. At present, I live with my big family in New York.
Visit me online at www.reussiemiliardario.com or email me at [email protected]
Here is a sample of The Outlaws (Endless Love, #1):
1.
The school bell just rang. I tossed my folder and literature book into my backpack, zipped it up, and threw it over my shoulder. When I stepped outside, I was rudely reminded of how hot it was today. The warm Santa Anna winds were strong. I was glad that I wore shorts and a tank top to school today. It would be easier to handle the late May heat on my walk home.
I think I was the only senior at San Diego High School that didn’t have a car. My mother and step-father had lots of fancy cars, but they wouldn’t let me have one. They said I was too stupid to own an automobile. I’d just crash it or do something idiotic in it like get pregnant.
Usually, my best friend Brooke and her boyfriend Jacob would drive me home, but today they left early because they were driving from our beach city, La Jolla, to the country town of Ramona about an hour away. They wanted to visit Brooke’s aunt who was in the hospital.
As usual, the kids were noisy and rambunctious in the halls. One senior grabbed a baseball cap off of a freshman and threw it in the trash. Some cheerleaders rushed by with their pompoms in their hands and sneered at me as they passed. I tried to ignore them. I was in a melancholy mood and didn’t feel like starting up with them.
Aside from my down mood, it was a pretty average day except that I noticed bad boy Justin Mason glancing at me as he talked to his friends over by the school library. He was far away, but I could tell he was watching me. He was wickedly handsome. All the girls wanted him, but he didn’t seem to want any of them.
Last week, after I broke up with my boyfriend Tyler, some guys at my school told me Justin wanted to ask me to the prom. I was shocked. I never considered myself attractive—I was skinny, my nose was pointy, and my eyes were slits. My brown hair was too long, too thin, and too straggly. Something about my appearance was boyish and bratty. And I certainly wasn’t popular. So the possibility of an invitation from the most desired boy at my school came as a real surprise.
I didn’t know him at all and I heard he was bad. He had a mysterious past that nobody could figure out. He was confident, but aloof. Nobody knew mu
ch about him, but rumor had it that he didn’t even have parents.
If Justin really did ask me and if I said yes, all the popular girls would be envious. I didn’t get along with most of the cheerleaders and cliquey girls. They thought I was weird. I definitely wanted to go to prom with Justin even if to just make them angry. Pay back would be sweet. I couldn’t wait to see the looks of jealousy in their eyes when they saw the outcast girl going out with the guy they all lusted over. But, deep down I feared that the guys who said Justin wanted to take me to prom were just messing with me, trying to make me look stupid.
I was embarrassed that Justin was looking at me, so I took a quick detour to the bathroom to get out of his line of vision. If he was trying to mess with my mind, I couldn’t deal with it today.
The bathroom was quiet and cool, but it smelled like cigarettes. I was glad that nobody was in there to bother me. I splashed water on my hot face to cool off. When I looked in the mirror with my wet face, I felt like somebody else was staring back at me. I just didn’t feel like myself anymore. I felt ugly and alone. I hated my mother. I hated Tyler. I think I hated everyone.
I must have stood there in the bathroom staring at myself and thinking evil thoughts for twenty minutes before I left. When I got outside, all the kids were gone. The school halls were quiet. I headed over to my locker past the library.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Tyler said as he threw my arms over my head against my school locker and held them in place.
“This isn’t funny,” I said firmly. “Let me go.” I tried to wiggle out of my ex-boyfriend’s grasp, but he held me too tight.
He pressed his lips against mine.
“Stop it!” I twisted my head away, but he held fast, shoving his tongue into my mouth. “Ugh! Don’t, don’t.” I squirmed to get away. In a fury, I tried to knee him in the groin, but he blocked my aggressions with his legs. At once, he pressed up against me.
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